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Brown v. BOE
Supreme Court case that overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling (1896). Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court ruled that "separate but equal" schools for blacks were morally unequal and was unconstitutional. The decision energized the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. -
Rosa Parks' Resistance
On this day, Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This act of defiance prompted the Montgomery bus boycott. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine black students wanted to go to school at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. They were blocked and protests arose from white people in the town. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Proposed by President Eisenhower, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was signed intp law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another’s right to vote. -
Greensboro Sit In
Four black university students from N.C. A&T University began a sit-in at a segregated F.W. Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. The event triggered similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later, the original four protesters are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would be an effective tactic throughout the South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries and other public facilities. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. -
Bloody Sunday
Blacks began a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights, but were stopped at the Edmund Pettus Bridge by police blockade in Selma, Ala. State troopers and the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, some mounted on horseback, awaited them. In the presence of the news media, the lawmen attacked the peaceful demonstrators with billy clubs, tear gas and bullwhips, driving them back into Selma. -
Voting Rights of 1965
President Johnson signs the Voting Rights of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis Tennessee. James Earl Ray was convicted of his murder in 1969. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunities regardless of race, religion or their origin.
